Star Wars: Visions - Episode 2: Tatooine Rhapsody
Continuing with my set on Star Wars: Visions (all the episodes had to come out in one day, didn’t they?), we’ll move on to the next one. My feelings about this one are difficult to convey without spoilers, so SPOILERS. Anywho: Episode 2: Tatooine Rhapsody Developed By: Studio Colorido Directed By: Taku Kimura This is an interesting one, because it’s about music. Music in the Star Wars universe has always been something that we know existed, kind of, but which never got much specific focus. Characters lay low in seedy bars with jazz or ska music playing in the background. Mob bosses hire musicians to play for their lavish castles and spaceships. That sort of thing. It’s always just been for setting. Not this one. This one is about the musicians. A ragtag band of hopefuls who want to be the best band in the galaxy, but run into trouble with Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt, who are after one of their members for unknown reasons. They can’t win, but maybe they can play their way out... It also brings a new music type to the Star Wars video output: we’ve gotten jazz, funk, ska, etc before, but the focus of this one is a pop/rock mix that’s pretty reminiscent if one has heard more than a few anime theme songs in their day. But back to the plot: if you’ve ever watched a slice of life anime about teenagers in a specific subculture facing fantastical odds - skateboarding, tabletop gaming, art, etc and so on, there’s ones for lots of concepts - the general tone and characterization of this one should feel familiar. There’s a brash but goodhearted kid who is very attached to his found family of musicians, and who goes all out to save one of them from mortal peril on their path to being the best. Besides the one in trouble, the other members of the band aren’t too distinctive: there’s a droid, and then an odd alien design unlike any I’ve seen in the franchise before, consisting of three oni-like aliens conjoined into a single body. They each have a close attachment to one another, but beyond the oni-trio alien having head with a different emotion, they do kind of blend together. Things get somber when we get the backstory: that brash kid is an ex-padawan, found when he was very young by a runaway gangster after Order 66. That gangster wanted to leave behind his criminal life to be what he always wanted to be: free, and a musician. The young Padawan joined him, was practically raised by him, and years later the two are inseparable... except now But here’s where it gets interesting, and the reason I felt the need to reveal that in the review: if this were a main Star Wars series production, it would almost certainly end with the kid realizing his destiny and becoming a hero through the galaxy, the others part of his team. But that doesn’t happen. Instead, the short commits to its chosen genre and runs with it all the way: the kid finds a way out of the situation without fighting, and instead saves his friend by pushing forward on their quest to be the best: seeing as Jabba could do worse than profit off of an up and coming popular band...
It’s different, and throws off a few Star Wars conventions in favor of certain genre ones, but that commitment is exactly what makes it a fun and almost innocent, in a way that gives it a lot of charm. Sometimes, your destiny is to be what you want to be. It’s a bit customary in anthologies like this one to start with your big, hype first foray, and then go into lighter slice of lifes for a while before whammying the audience with the hammer blows, and this one definitely does its job with its lighter leanings.
As a musical short, there’s a song in this one - and it rocks. It’s excellent in both Japanese and English, though it’s - for obvious reasons - clearly written with more Japanese vocals in mind, the dub sometimes having to throw in “yeahs” and extra syllables to keep up. Lastly, as with the first review, and all of the subsequent ones, I’m also going to be looking at canon potential. These shorts are explicitly non-canon, but there’s always a chance that with enough support certain characters or ideas might catch the studio’s attention, leading to them pursuing them later on. It’s not entirely likely, but it’s enough of a possibility that I’m also looking at each episode on terms of how well they fit into the Star Wars universe... just in case. And in the case of Tatooine Rhapsody... I actually have no idea. As I mention above, this short explores an area of the universe that’s almost completely unplumbed. I do think it does fit into the universe fairly well continuity-wise - it does strain credulity a bit that Boba would encounter an ex-Jedi, even a kid, and do nothing about it, plus the one bizarre alien design above - but it’s a generally decent fit. But with both the studio and the fanbase being as highly fixated as they are on only wanting BIG, WORLDSHAKING EVENTS for major Star Wars media, I’m not sure how much Disney would want a series about a bunch of musicians making their way in the universe with their song while throwing off their old obligations, nor how fair the fanbase would be to it. In the end, with that in mind I’d tentatively give this one only Okay Chances of canonization, but only if people really pulled for seeing these protagonists again. Otherwise, probably not. But personally, I would love it.
